No BenevolantDictatorD - so the course is out and back - and the format is easy out, race home. The group splintered on the way out as riders prepared to turn early for the journey home. With CF and Cyclone Sam in the pack evryone was reasonably nervous. And so it happened - Sam and CF quickly off the front - no one able to pick them up - predictions come true.

No report was made about the weather or the standard of chat around the coffee table - hmmm.......

And this week. Another beautiful day in Richmond. High cloud so no need for sun cream today. A zephyr of a northwesterly to cool the brow so not too much disincentive to take turns on the front. No pressure on the mercury in the thermometers with temperatures varying between 5 and 6 degrees.

14 smiling faces at the start line with 13 in the main bunch followed by the elite of - me - chasing as pace. A snail has a pace Being in the process of general recovery from the first winter lurgy the intent of the elite was to take it very easy. I saw them coming back from the turn and quickly took up position at the back of the pack. They had done 27kms by then and I had done 17. Two were already lost in the excitement as we stormed towards Fingerpost. My snail's pace resumed and they disappeared very quickly - all riding smoothly with what appeared to be some organisation of doing turns. Well done Pete!

I had to wait a while for them to get back to me - a very strategic setting of the course I think - and managed to wave to the 2 lost souls as they continued on regardless. There they were - this time in single file - not a good sign. A split here and there was closed up and all together back onto Richmond Road. Sean packed it in with a puncture when at the back. The rest soldiered on. The pace picked up. The turns got shorter. PMM man couldn't cope any longer and made a mess of the pace line as pulled out out of his turn.

The inevitable happened - CF just left everybody behind - and then kept up the pace across all the finish lines just in case those of us 50m behind thought we might catch up.

Coffee was good. No discussion of mens plumbing. Lots of experts on this years tour and whether the "man" is guilty or not. Some were counting the days to Master6's return. Ah the serenity of it all.

BDD is out of action for a week, and the cult members turn mute. No emergency leader appointed, no reports made to the hordes of interested Australians.

Thank God for a return to the usual super normal today.

Who will win the Tour ? Who knows...........does it matter? A great spectacle it will be, regardless of who wins.

No need to discuss mens urology matters today; I have moved on to matters cardiological. A little burst on the treadmill today scored an A+ stress /echo result, and a rash of complimentary remarks. By the time I got home I revised the Cardiologists report to something like:-

"Jeffs cycling is doing him a world of good, and he should continue the program on an extensive daily basis. "

I was going to add "Jeff should have a new (very expensive) , bike soon, or even sooner...." however I just could not bring myself to exaggerate .

11 smiling faces turned up for an easy ride in the lovely sunshine leaving Richmond Bakery car Park at slighlty after 9am. It was a little late to get away because we couldn't unfreeze in time to chastise the late comers. Glorious sunshine did little to raise the temperature past the three degree mark but we headed off anyway to encounter another late comer on the way in. Bunch rules were followed - and he chased - as it should be.

Up to the top of Cole Hill without me following a cleat/pedal problem that seemed to have fixed itself for no known reason. The bunch returned with some intent. No Cyclone Sam or CF on the front this week so RodV did his best to imitate Fabian and ride us off his wheel. The first test was the turn onto Fingerpost and the numbers dwindled to 9 as the others apparently hadn't worked out how to turn up that road.

RodV powered on and splintered the bunch completely creating mass demoralisation. Some waited without realising we wern't coming back that way. Some kept going because it was too cold. Some turned around at the very thought of Brinktop on the way home. Some then recreated the Tassie version of Strada Bianca by taking the dirt road short cut back to the bakery - and a fine piece of dirt road it is too.

I think 3 did the course without Fingerpost, 3 did the full course including Brinktop, 3 did the return via tarmac, and 3 did the return via the dirt. Another great day. Everyone got back sooner or later. Coffee and chat was reasonably abbreviated given the temperature was still struggling at around seven degrees.

BenevolantDictatorD wrote:Another beautiful riding day predicted for the RBWR tomorrow. Temperatures will be balmy with predictions of higher morning temperatures than expected in Brisbane! Sorry about that Master6

Another glorious day - another RBWR run and won --- --- its not a race! Is it?

I spent so much time admiring the weather and allowing some small amount of debate on where we were going - futile process - that I forgot to count the starters but it must have been around 15 or so - including a couple of newbies. A different course after three weeks in a row up Cole Hill so we did the forest course - Richmond Road, Middle Tea Tree Road, Tea Tree Road, Back Tea Tree Road, Grass Tree Hill Road, turn, Grass Tree hill road, Back Tea Tree Road, Tea Tree Road, Colebrook road, finish. Seven Trees make a forest!

No cyclone Sam again but CF was back and RodV was in a fast mood. After last week's debacle with riders heading in multiple directions extra time was taken to ensure we all knew where to go. Of course - even before the first tuen we lost one rider going the wrong way! We laughed and assumed he knew what he was doing - he didn't! Heads down and away we went. The bunch splintered on numerous occasions to reform each time. The turn saw numbers dwindle as proximity to Richmond dragged a few off for an early coffee or back to work. RodV and CF hurt everyone else on the way home. Not too sure on who won the sprint as I was off looking for stragglers and missed the action.

Lots of conversation about the Tour and the continuing numbers of creashes in every bunch except ours, lots of coffee drunk and a run down of the La Ronde as listed on the Tassie page and about to be updated. Many predictions were made but the most believable was that the weather will be perfect in Richmond next Wednesday morning.

What is it about Richmond on a Wednesday morning? Another glorious day - a little on the cool side - but nice sunshine and warm enough to be down to one layer by the time to turn around. The roads were a bit wet so the stright out and back got the tick of approval from the 13 assembled RBWRers. No new riders this week but lots of smiley faces. No PMM Man this week and the reasons for his ailment are best not discussed on a national forum

So - off we went into the bright sunshine with the usual zephyr of a breeze and tootled nicely up to Colebrook. Denis' return saw the number in the elite group swell to one and he turned early. Three other turned at the township and the rest made the normal turn. I didn't hear it but apparently the starters gun startled a few and the race began with Cyclone Sam making up for a few weeks off by hurtling home, picking up the early turners and crossing the finish line well in fron to everyone. If it was a race he would have won everything

Coffee was great as usual with much discerning commentary on how Cadel and the others should gang up on Wiggo.

So today I found myself agreeing with someone online and went to type “hear hear” but then remembered seeing someone else type “here here” a couple days earlier.

I was pretty sure the correct phrase was “hear hear” as opposed to the other variants I'd seen (“here here”, “hear here”, “here hear”) but I'd never actually looked it up. So I decided to check popular internet usage using Google: 1.“hear hear” = 1,740,000 hits

2.“here here” = 3,880,000 hits

3.“hear here” = 307,000 hits

4.“here hear” = 334,000 hits

Well dang. According to popular usage twice as many people say “here here” than say “hear hear”. But is that correct? Wikipedia says no:

Hear hear (Wikipedia):…Hear, hear is an expression used as a short repeated form of hear ye and hear him. It represents a listener's agreement with the point being made by a speaker.

It was originally an imperative for directing attention to speakers, and has since been used, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, as “the regular form of cheering in the House of Commons”, with many purposes depending on the intonation of its user. It is often incorrectly spelled “here here”, especially on websites…

A quick double check of OneLook Dictionary Search confirms this. Six dictionaries list “hear hear” and only one lists “here here” (and that one happens to be the wiki article above.)

Popular usage drives the movement of meaning, though, so at some point in the future “here here” may end up being the correct phrase if we don't do something about it.

So if you want to avoid yet another English colloquialism that will have your great grandchildren scratching their heads and saying “Say What?” (or whatever kids will be saying in those days) then type “hear hear” at every opportunity.

Its the 18th of July - that means it is after the middle of winter. The days are getting longer. There were 20 riders on the road for RBWR today. Its almost spring time. Wait a minute - 20 riders on the road today - well done team. So many riders that we had three self selected bunches with 17 in the main bunch. Welcome along to Kerry who has obviously heard of the quiet roads and perfect weather.

The last of the rain drops finished as ordered at 10 minutes before start time and the Tea Tree circuit it was. Some debate was had about the road works on Back Tea Tree but it wasn't too bad but annoying enough to take it off the route map for a while. It looks like they are going to reduce the farm two step hill into a one step hill which will be a loss in cycling terms.

A nicely packed bunch worked well together out to Back Tea Tree only to find some idiot take off after a truck and draft it up the hill to get away. I finally had to take a breath and dropped off said truck to be caught by the peleton pretty quickly. Old habits The usual self selection again took place as various individuals took the sensible decision to turn early. The remaining peleton had CF, Cyclone Sam and Rod V at the front for a short while and obviously someone started the race - they weren't seen again!

Coffee and conversation was good as always - no diuretics were handed around - but much laughter was shared equally.

During the pre-ride chatter of teeth someone said it was three degrees. I don't think it was that warm! Not only was it cold but cold season has descended. Another record was set today - the first time ever that the elite bunch has outnumbered the main bunch with 8 in the elite category and 5 in the main bunch.

An appropriate course was set out with the fast main bunch heading up Middle Tea Tree Road to the top of Coal Hill with the rest of us heading straight up and back. Some time during the morning the bureau reckons it was 0.6 degrees in Campania. I think that was about the time we went through! Both bunches maintained a steady pace and, apart from Cliver making incessant surges off the front of the elites, everyone stayed pretty close together. We just figured if we were putting out 450 watts he would have to keep up 500 watts for over twenty minutes to stay away - he didn't.

Lots of discussion around coffee about the Tour, the Olympics and the Vuelta. No one considered that Froome might be looking for a new team and he could make up a nine with the RBWR elites! Just as we were leaving the Genesys boys turned up on their training ride. I was going to remind them that we leave at 9:00:00.000 but they didn't look like they needed to be reminded. They were obviously disappointed in not getting there on time. Maybe next week.

The following was on the Southern Tasmanian Cycling Club facebook page:_

"As I'm planning to be the first blind cyclist to ride around Oz, leaving in April 2013) ..... I would very much appreciate knowing: * if there are any cycling coaches in Hobart, * If there are any indoor group sessions run by a coach: - (To set the effort, give encouragement and advice on gears and cadence etc.. ) * Any cyclists willing to ride through the week to get me off the trainer, and onto the roads. (have own road tandem)

PLEEZ!pass this on to anyone who you think may be willing to help me.

(The days of me being able to jump on my bike at 5.30am and take off for a ride on my own are gone, so I'm relying on the support and enthusiasm of people in Hobart to help me achieve my goal.) Email: jnpenguin@westnet.com.au Thanks

Like · · 22 July at 21:41 near Hobart, Tasmania

Jeff Brown There are plenty of old men with outsized opinions of there own cycling ability at the Richmond Bakery Wednesday Ride Jen. (including myself) lol. I am away on holiday until the end of August, and interested in helping you on my return. How far would you like to ride? Do you currently have any training pilots? Where do you like to ride? Where would a training pilot meet you to start a ride? Does the size of your bike limit the size of your pilot.? I had a home made tandem with a friend years ago. I recall that it was so flexible that it felt like the frame was made from spaghetti, and it definately handled better (if there was a "better") with a solid rider up front, and a lighter rider behind. I think that we should be able to come up with some help for you.2 seconds ago · Like."

The sound of RBWR true believers having a coffee in the rain instead of riding.

The clearing showers managed to clear around the time that we had finished our coffee and chatting. At that point we had C&KF heading home on the tandem. Resounding applause when they arrived! Total turnout was 8 if you count RodV arriving and driving around the car park before leaving. Cyclone Sam and BG did the right thing and went for a ride in the sunshine as it was at 10.00.000 They hadn't had a coffee by that stage. Ah well - next week.

for next week also we can have a chat about Master6's entry below and see what he can organise for Jen.

late winter weather is now settling into its normal pattern - and that means wind - won't even start on the cycling jokes about that one. The clouds were whizzing across the sky getting darker by the minute so common sense said Colebrook and back. Hide behind the strong boys on the way out and hang on on the way home. It was such a good plan too. My friendly wbsite from BOM tells me the wind was around 24 clicks out of the North on the way out and building to around 26 on the way back.

The elite group of one was shelled out by Campania. A couple of us waited for him to no avail. He was struggling. So were we! By the time we started turning around in advance of the expected fast flying pack we had made the Colebrook town boundary. Hanging around the top of the hill gave us a sight of Cyclone Sam and CF coming at speed. They jumped past Scot but I managed to grab on - serious error of judgement. The stars before my eyes started getting bigger so I let them go. I only lasted 3kms with most of that down hill. Next came RodV also at speed and with intent. Much easier to draft one person tahn two so managed to hang on. My conscience got the better of me so I did a turn and blew up again. Next group along and I'm back into it again. We got swamped with a short distance to go and most of the rest finished together - just as the rain started to fall.

Coffe was good - CF's birthday rocky road cake went down well - but the horizontal rain put a bit of a dampener on the festivities and we retired to the cars. Sooner or later we will get the Baskerville circuit up and going again - we just need a touch of Richmond-perfect weather to return.

Another interesting weather day lining up for the RBWR. Temperatures forecast low enough to give us a nice crackling frost to send us on our way with reasonably solid NorWesterlies to keepus honest while we are out there. Looks like we'll have to give Black Charlie's a miss again!

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